


To Kill a Joey Drew

by Random_ag



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: (barely) Attempted Murder, Angst, Description of Choking, Hallucinations, He Detests Joey Drew In All Of His Forms, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mental Breakdown, Paranoia, implied Parallel Universes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-21 15:37:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18705238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Random_ag/pseuds/Random_ag
Summary: He fixes his stare on those grey eyes.They’re not grey.





	To Kill a Joey Drew

“Put that down.”

 

He stands.

 

“Eska, put that down.”

 

He tightens his grip on the letter opener. His palms are sweating. His breath feels jagged and irregular. His eyes are wide.

Eska stares deep into his boss’ grey irises, gulping as if he was lethally thirsty.

 

Today is the day Joey Drew dies.

 

He takes a step forward, unstable, clearly not feeling well; but he has to do this. For everybody’s sake, his own in the first place. Because when Joey Drew dies, they’re all free, and the hallucinations stop.

The nightmares stop.

The paranoia stops.

The fear stops.

It all stops.

 

He breathes hard underneath the mask. Walking feels so difficult. He just has to steady his nerves, concentrate on something; today is the day Joey Drew dies.

 

He fixes his stare on those grey eyes.

 

They’re not grey.

 

They’re. They’re green. Or red? Blue? Brown. Golden. Black. He moves to look at his face. His skin is pale- dark- both, and his hair white?- blue, like ink- chestnut, maybe- blond- grey, his eyebrows thin, cut?, whatgoddamshape - does he have a beard? a mustache? a stubble? - and he wears small and angular, no, big, round glasses (notheresnoglasseswhywouldtherebeglasses), and his nose looks like an arrow pointing down, it’s short and sharp, round, a little thing, long, small, beak-like, broken- his mouth? a line whatisithenevernoticednevercared, and inside it the gappednotgappedyellowwhitewide teeth. His sight falls to see he wears a coat that belongs in a lab or a hospital- a white coat with tails in the back- a vest- just a shirt- and a hat, what hat?, a bow tie- just a tie- a cravat?, and underneath he sitsinawheelchairdordoesnthedoesntknowdoesntsee, in his glovedbare hand acanenothing. It’s so much, so much, so much he sees, and he stumbles back, away from the youngerolderburlythintallshortaverage man with longshorttiedup hair and blackwhitespottedgloved hands and those eyes! those eyes! what color are they, what shape are they, what color is he, how tall is he, how does he look like, how do the things on him look like, why is he so much and so varied, why does he have to be so much and so different and so many-

 

Eska shivers hard as he spits foam from his mouth and wails, painfully backed into the corner where he sits trying to fend him off. Pale hands grab gently his wrist, and he jolts with a yell.

 

Drew tries again.

 

“Give it to me.” he murmurs, offering his palm.

 

He clutches the letter opener weakly, letting out a garbled lament. He attempts to swing it to scare Drew away, but his movements are too small and embed in his own body. He seems devoid of strength.

 

Joey grabs the blade very carefully between his fingers. The handle slips out of Eska’s; the factotum looks powerlessly as the other man puts it far away from both of them.

 

He tries to fight back when the animator slides an arm under his armpit and raises him up, but he gives up soon: there’s too many pulling him up to his feet to try and go against them. He sinks his nails into the handrail’s wood as they go down the stairs deep enough to leave marks ( _he could throw me off at any moment_ ), and his entire body leans weak on the smaller man.

At least, he thinks he’s smaller.

Many times he is smaller.

 

Some he isn’t.

 

He begins choking on his own spit when Joey makes him lay down on the infirmary bed. Immediately, thousands of hands turn him on his side, worried, freeing his throat from the saliva blocking it - because it’s so dreadful seeing someone choke, the way they gag with their drooling mouth wide open and eyes bulging and crying as they try to helplessly get air into their poor empty lungs, as their face turns white, then blue, then grey, and no Drew wants to see something so horrible.

 

_He doesn’t want to see his own work._

 

“Stay here.” he hears, “Will you stay here until you feel better?”

 

A strangled whine escapes him.  _His mouth tastes like iron._

 

“Gone… Gone to slaughter… The sheep…”

 

It’s enough of an answer.

 

Joey Drew rubs his shoulder gently ( _he’s always nice before killing in cold blood_ ) with a genuinely concerned expression on his face ( _he’s oh so very good at pretending he cares_ ).

 

“Don’t move. Rest.”

 

_Don’t move. I can’t waste time looking for you for the sacrifice._

 

 

He can’t kill Joey Drew, Eska realizes as the man leaves. There are too many. Too many, too different, and yet all the same. They would kill him. They will.

 

But he can’t kill them.

 

As soon as one is gone, there’s a dozen others, all so terribly attached to life, ready to turn him into a corpse to give life to, or just a carcass to dispose of, an unfortunate accident that shouldn’t have happened, a victim of self-defense. He can try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try, but he will never succeed.

 

He can’t cancel Joey Drew from the face of the Earth.

 

He can’t be safe.

 

The rope feels coarse in his callous palms. He tightens his grip inside his pocket.

 

He spits foam.  _It’s ink._  His head spins when he forces himself to stand up on his own two feet, stmbling towards the nearest vent.

It’s a long way, the one he slowly passes through in the air ducts. A long, long, painfully nauseating way. He might have vomited a couple of times.  _Blood and ink._  Still he crawls, rising up, and up, and up.

 

The rope calls for him. To free him.

 

His movements feel impossibly heavy.

 

Better. The heavier he is, the faster it will do.

 

He can’t kill Joey Drew. There’s too many of him.

 

It’s very lucky then, he thinks. .

 

_gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s  gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s  gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s  gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s gonna stop It’s_

 

 

 

That there is only one Eska.


End file.
